The Yucca Mountain Project: Heater Testing:
The Single Heater Test
Objectives
Evaluate THMC coupled processes around a line heater source in fractured tuff.
Develop testing methodologies and modeling approaches for high-temperature conditions.
Approaches
Heating with a 5 m long, 4 kW heater lasted 9 months, starting in 1996 and ending in 1997.
Borehole sensing and cross-hole testing were used before, during, and after heating period.
Results
Extent of dryout (about 1 m around the heater hole) was measured with geophysical techniques (ERT, GRP and neutron).
Condensate zone below the heater was found to be larger than above the heater horizon.
Chemical composition of water collected during heating in packed borehole intervals was analyzed.
Characterization data by air-injection tests and mechanical displacement measurements located high-k flow paths.
Reference
Tsang, Y.W. and J.T. Birkholzer, "Predictions and Observations of the Thermal-Hydrological Conditions in the Single Heater Test", Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, vol. 38, 385-425, 1999.
Objectives
Chemical composition of water collected during heating in packed borehole intervals was analyzed.